We Like The Moon

2002-02-23
1m

Lunar lunacy from pioneering Flash animator, songwriter and online humourist, Joel Veitch

This sublime slice of online weirdness from 2002 features the ‘Spongmonkies’, a pair of crudely animated animal characters with incongruously large eyes, human mouths and high-pitched voices, declaring their love for Earth’s single natural satellite.

Creator Joel Veitch helped herald a new era of ‘random’ online humour – equal parts odd, surreal and just plain daft – with a series of Flash animation spoofs, skits and songs. These were hosted on the humour platform b3ta and his own website, RatherGood.com, where such bizarre and fundamentally uncommercial material could find an audience and flourish.

Veitch’s impact on the online landscape was immediate and was even felt by the powers that be. In 2003, he made the leap to broadcast television to produce the music and animation clip show Rather Good Videos for 4Music, which was hailed as the place “where the brilliant, the cool, the uncensored and the downright weird all find a home”.

That TV crossover was short-lived, but the animation endured through the decades across multiple video and social media platforms. Veitch’s unique style eventually proved to be irresistible to corporate clients including VH1, Virgin Trains, and most memorably, the Quiznos fast-food sandwich chain, for which the Spongmonkies returned, in retooled form, to sing “We Love the Subs”.

'The Spongmonkies' are two crudely animated creatures with haunting eyes, one plays the guitar and one sings. In this video they sing an original song about the moon.

Online Video

From viral memes to video essays, discover highlights from a new BFI National Archive collection...

First came the Cinema Age, then the TV Age, and now the age of Online Video. Digital film created for distribution online is today’s most dynamic, influential screen form. Encompassing much that’s new, from ASMR and Unboxing Videos to Twitch streaming and TikTok twerking, it’s also breathed new life into older film forms, filling our screens with fresh takes on advertising, journalism, satire, public information, campaigning, training and much else that’s been with us since time immemorial, and variously taking the forms of comedy, drama, documentary and animation. It’s become embedded into every aspect of UK (and world) society.

This unique collection of 50 online videos combines iconic highlights of British online video with other examples chosen to illustrate that sheer diversity. All were acquired by the BFI National Archive as part of the Lottery funded Our Screen Heritage programme. Our thanks to the Lottery, and lottery ticket buyers nationwide. for their support of this vital collecting and preservation work.